<drk> Breitbart is going to publish an article on Magic tomorrow<drk> at least that's what MTGHQ is saying<ToadBrews> Breitbart: Invoke Prejudice poised for a comeback?<Doug> Forbes: Here's what Magic: the Gathering is (click Next to see next sentence)<Doug> Time: Some people enjoy Magic, but others criticize it<Doug> Newsweek: If you play Magic: the Gathering you need to vote for (candidate)<ToadBrews> Alex Jones: The SECRET Banlist legacy players expect YOUR CHILDREN to follow!<Doug> Sports Illustrated: Here are some players who play today. But remember Jon Finkel?<Doug> People: Katy Perry loves Kaladesh<Doug> Maxim: Who's hotter, Liliana or Chandra<ToadBrews> CNN: Donald Trump does not play magic. Why?<2n> WSJ: Magic 101: What is it and how to invest<Doug> Martha Stewart Living: Old Magic cards can become these adorable utensil holders<ToadBrews> FOX: Donald Trump definitely plays magic and his deck is better than yours.<Mordoc> Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Donald Trump did NOT cheat in the finals of an SCG open and don't you dare ask me about it again<Mordoc> Donald Trump's twitter, the next day: Incompetent starcity judges completely unable to keep me from stacking my deck in the finals. Sad!<drk> Jacobin: Pauper is the only moral way to play Magic<F♠️less> Vice: Inside The Underground Kaladesh Drafts Of The Pro Tour Scene<Nemryn> SlateStarCodex: I: Hypothesis: Smuggler's Copter is too good<Nemryn> II: Here are a bunch of charts and graphs and diagrams<Nemryn> III: A few apparently-unrelated studies and/or anecdotes<Nemryn> IV: So what can we conclude? Not much, with confidence p>.05<F♠️less> The Grauniad: People rarely play mill decks in tournaments any more. I hate that our culture makes me miss it.<F♠️less> The Daily Express: EXCLUSIVE - Princess Di "Always mulliganed a one lander" according to top royal officials<ToadBrews> The National Enquirer: Sengir Nosferatuboy, a retrospective<Aeldaar> pff @ Forbes<Doug> you know I'm dead on with that<Monty> Forbes: Please uninstall your adblocker to find what Magic: The Gathering is hey where are you going okay bye

Voyager marked the shift away from "High Context" (stories about ideas) to "shooting lasers in space." TNG is the pinnacle of idea storytelling (the ONLY space battle in the entire series is in an alternate timeline during the events of "Yesterday's Enterprise") but TOS actually hardly had any ships shooting at each other either. Sometimes they'd phaser a planet from space for whatever reason. Most of the time their attempts to phaser their problems away didn't work (like against the planet killer).

Enterprise was even more shooting lasers in space than VOY (and with even weaker characters, if you can believe it), but it still occasionally did stories about ideas.

Then the reboot movies and Discovery came along and that is what Trek is about now. It's about lasers. In space.

Yeah, even people I know who like Voyager (shudder), say it's because they enjoy the way the show becomes (after several seasons of meaningless meandering) about how "Janeway will do anything to win".

Which is like okay, I didn't sign up to watch Star Trek for that.

Also, gratuitous borg tiddehs, was like "Oh fuck you, Star Trek". I mean, not that Trek didn't have gratuitous shit before that (e.g. the entire Original Trek series), but something about 7 was just fanservicey in an incredibly irritating way.

I've always maintained that it was a shame they went full Barbie of Nine with her, because she's actually not a bad character if you can look past the truly absurd levels of fanservice. She's not great like The Doctor, but she's certainly a more interesting character than, say, Harry fucking Kim.

In any case, VOY justifies its own existence because of Captain Proton, which are some of the best Trek episodes period, not just VOY.

The "Janeway is always right" aspect of the show was a natural outgrowth of the increasing reliance on the Prime Directive as dogma, rather than using it as a guideline. The Prime Directive was always right and Janeway believed in the Prime Directive, ergo Janeway is always right.

Also because the writers and producers didn't think anyone would take a female captain seriously if she wasn't a Thatcheresque hardass.

I like Kate Mulgrew a lot, she's a classy lady and a good actress. Janeway's problem is that she's wildly inconsistent. In one episode, she'll directly murder a dude and in the next do everything she can to avoid it, to absurd levels. The writers just could not decide what the fuck to do with her and she comes off as an unhinged lunatic because of it.

Büge wrote:Also because the writers and producers didn't think anyone would take a female captain seriously if she wasn't a Thatcheresque hardass.

Yeah, I hated that. I mean, to be fair, there's a lot of women who believe this just in general in IRL and that also drives me bananas. That she had almost ZERO consistent characterization reeeaaally didn't help.

Friday wrote:I've always maintained that it was a shame they went full Barbie of Nine with her, because she's actually not a bad character if you can look past the truly absurd levels of fanservice. She's not great like The Doctor, but she's certainly a more interesting character than, say, Harry fucking Kim.

I think there was huge potential there for a scarred (figuratively AND literally) survivor type of character, slowly coming to terms with PTSD and other assorted problems. Too bad that potential was completely squandered.

<+MarsDragon> I think signing up for an account to prove we're all mature enough to handle Mink's boobs is the Americans' best bet<@Friday> I'm not sure I can handle them<@Friday> I've never seen anime boobs before<@Friday> ever<@Friday> not even once<leeham> anime boobs: not even once<@Friday> you know what my actual first anime boobs were<@Friday> fucking Wicked City<@Friday> what a way to start<@Friday> oh hey anime boobs OH MY GOD SHE'S TURNING INTO A SPIDER WITH A TOOTH VAGINA<+Mazian> I feel like this explains a lot<@Friday> actually in retrospect this explains my sexual fetishes perfectly<Mr_Saturn|Laptop> yeah

<@Silversong> I don't have unsweetened cocoa here, but I do have some chai<@Silversong> aaand the boss' kids are crying<Brentai> ... wait<Brentai> Are you going to put the boss's kids in your tea? <leeham> snowy wastes, boss's kids crying<leeham> Silver are you on Shadow Moses Island<@Silversong> FEE FUM FO FI<@Silversong> GONNA BOIL THESE KIDS IN CHAI

<Doug> I find this headline fascinating<Doug> The Daily Beast: The President's Nuclear Dick-Measuring Contest<KingRamz> In the sixties it would've been all about a science contest for kids to design nuclear-powered dick measuring devices<QED> JFK: "Cool nuclear-powered dick measuring device, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great."<KingRamz> JFK: "We choose to build a nuclear-powered device in this decade to measure the dicks, not because it is easy, but because they are hard."

<Brentai> The concept of God being an elaborate system of cosmic influences has been around for a while. <Brentai> Hell, it's what I believe in. <Brentai> God exists but It doesn't display any sort of recognizable human intelligence. <zaratustra> like romo

[15:26] <Brentai> Man it's still weird to talk about Nazis like they're an actual thing that exist.[15:27] <Brentai> It's like you go out and your mother's like "Okay honey be careful watch out for velociraptors."[15:30] <Brentai> You go to work and there's a velociraptor sitting in the cubicle across the row, eying you.[15:30] <myew> There's one in each row.[15:30] <Brentai> Everyone knows he's a velociraptor but you can't really do anything about it.[15:31] <Brentai> You just sit there and tell yourself he's not smart enough to open doors.[15:32] <leeham> at least it turns out that velociraptors are wimpier irl than in the movies though[15:32] <Sede> why the velocihate?[15:33] <Brentai> There's the whole thing about killing and eating people.[15:34] <leeham> not one person has ever been killed and eaten by a velociraptor[15:34] <leeham> that's a hollywood myth[15:34] <Sede> yeah but, they'll eat ANY race

: Mention something from KPCC or Rachel Maddow: Go on about Homeworld for X posts

<@S-DDG> we need a reverse eversion<@S-DDG> like it's a horror game on its face<@S-DDG> all fucked up<@S-DDG> but slowly it becomes really wholesome positive reinforcement<@S-DDG> by the end it's a nice meadow and a pretty girl telling you you can do it<zaratustra> isn't that epic mickey<JD> a spooky ghost game but you get the sylph scope and befriend the ghosts and help them out<@Romosome> that is eversion, Friday<@Romosome> didn't you see the Good End<JD> it is my hope that eversion 2 will make zara a millionaire and he will invite is all to hang out his mansion<JD> or, if he stays in london, his two bedroom apartment

<Brentai> Sabin's arc only works if you realize that Sabin has literally no impulse control.<Brentai> "Okay we got off the Ghost Train, what now." "Let's jump off this waterfall!" "Sabin."<nosimpleway> Nobody in-game even figures out Shadow's deal. He sits around on the airship for a while, then only his dog makes it out of the final dungeon.<nosimpleway> He has dreams but says nothing about them to anyone<zaratustra> hell I'm surprised they actually left RELM IS SHADOW'S DAUGHTER partially ambiguous<Brentai> Relm is clearly Interceptor's daughter.<zaratustra> this may be an artifact of translation but i've found japanese media to generally assume the reader won't get something so it gets retreaded a lot<nosimpleway> "My twin brother stayed behind to be king I'm gonna cut all the sleeves off all my shirts." "Why?" "My brother is like 90% of my impulse control."<zaratustra> (case in point: any ace attorney game)<nosimpleway> Zara that was a running gag in my Suikoden II LP<nosimpleway> "Japan hates foreshadowing" and a couple variants.<zaratustra> brentai: maybe sabin just doesn't realize other people aren't indestructible slabs of meat<zaratustra> but we all know the square game with the most sensible plot<zaratustra> is live-a-live<Brentai> Xenogears is very consistent. Fei's father is, in fact, his dad.<@Cait> Reminds me, I was surprised to learn that Xenoblade is intended to indeed be in the same metaverse as Xenogears and Xenosaga.<nosimpleway> Were you not really feelin' it?<fbm> a lot of the japanese media we consume is aimed at 12 year olds<@Friday> yeah the player finds out a lot about Shadow<@Friday> but the other characters not really<@Friday> i guess they just assume Shadow didn't make it<@Friday> at the end<@Friday> because Interceptor cannot explain how he decided to end his life<zaratustra> hey interceptor where's shadow?<zaratustra> *whine*<zaratustra> shadow is in the well?<zaratustra> *bark*<zaratustra> that emo son of a bitch

<Pisa|Katto> so, are sand vests a thing in your classrooms yet<@Romosome> esper dare I even ask<Pisa|Katto> they're sort of like thundershirts, except for kids<maou> but what's a thundershirt<+BongoBill> the hell's one of those<Pisa|Katto> you know how some people with ASD have sensory hypersensitivity and frequently like<Pisa|Katto> wedge themselves under couch cushions or whatever<@Romosome> thundershirts are a tight shirt you put on nervous dogs<Pisa|Katto> it's actually just a calming weight<@Romosome> it applies gentle pressure like a hug and calms them<Pisa|Katto> that kids can wear to chill<Pisa|Katto> apparently it works with ADHD pretty well too<Brentai> Wait this is just a body pillow<maou> wh-what<maou> OH<maou> THOSE<Pisa|Katto> apparently there's a trial of these in german schools<Pisa|Katto> and they're so popular the kids are fighting over them. :3<maou> I'd wear one to work and when I get paged for something serious I'd stand up and be like "guys I gotta go to full power to tackle this" and then let it fall to the floor<@Romosome> hahahaha<@Romosome> i was thinking the same thing<Lady> Pisa|Katto isn't that the same principle as the hug box<Pisa|Katto> yep<Lady> that what's her name invented<@Romosome> honestly it sounds nice to me<@Romosome> like<Pisa|Katto> temple grandin<Lady> yeah<@Romosome> I think I'd be comforted by it<Lady> makes sense if they're the same spectrum<@Romosome> I like having weight on me when I sleep<Pisa|Katto> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... ks-concern<zaratustra> yeah there's a dilemma there<zaratustra> would you want your child bouncing around or dressed in a straitjacket<Pisa|Katto> it's not even a straitjacket though, they still have full range of movement<Pisa|Katto> just have a heavy vest<maou> hairy vest* Pisa|Katto sees maou's vest<Pisa|Katto> it's made of real gorilla chest<beatbandito> that is like, the least hairy part<beatbandito> And I am on the side of thundervests not doing anything to hurt kids with ADHD<beatbandito> but there's no way it gets them to actually pay attention<maou> no it probably just reduces the amount they fidget<maou> which is all teachers really care about, after a certain point<beatbandito> yeah<@Friday> okay so<@Friday> if you are okay with pills but not heavy clothes<@Friday> rollseyes<@Friday> if you dislike both fine<Pisa|Katto> heavy clothes in the summer though<@Friday> yeah<beatbandito> different kind of heavy<Pisa|Katto> but hey, summer break<maou> heavy pills<@Friday> that's a legit concern<Pisa|Katto> but yeah I prefer mechanical solutions to chemical solutions if possible<Pisa|Katto> like I want to see large-scale trials for these<Lady> mechanical solutions are certainly easier to model<Pisa|Katto> another mixed issue is that now these kids will have armor and be buff as fuck<@Friday> esper yeah they will be training under high gravity<@Friday> like piccolo<Pisa|Katto> like the main audience for these is people who want to make their exercise even more miserable<zaratustra> https://twitter.com/zarawesome/status/9 ... 9285153792<@Friday> zara<@Friday> i love you<zaratustra> :3<Pisa|Katto> zara is that what happens when she wears a thundershirt